Larry B. Gildersleeve
In print and online, 2020 has been referred to as Annus Horribilis, an intentional twist on John Dryden’s 1667 poem Annus Mirabilis (year of miracles). Queen Elizabeth first coined the term in a speech marking her fortieth anniversary as Britain’s monarch when she said: “1992 is not a year on which I shall look back with undiluted pleasure. It has turned out to be an annus horribilis. I suspect that I am not alone in thinking it so.”
Why did she think she’d had a horrible year back then? In March, her second son Andrew separated from his wife, Sarah Ferguson. In April, Elizabeth’s only daughter, Anne, separated from her husband, Mark Phillips. In May, the book Diana: Her True Story in Her Words documented for a voyeuristic world her fractured marriage to Charles, the queen’s oldest son and future king. In succeeding months, the tabloid press recounted in excruciating detail the alleged infidelities of both Charles and Diana. On November 20th, four days before the queen’s speech, a fire destroyed a portion of Windsor Castle, the historic royal residence in London.
